One quick question. What is the primary mode of pest control aboard naval ships? During the age of sails sailors actually brought cats aboard for rat/mice control. What is the animal policy aboard USN ships?
No pets allowed!
Never served on a ship that had rats or mice.. nor have I ever heard of an USN ship having such critters. USN uses rat guards to keep those vermin at bay.
Notice the rat guards on the most forward mooring line.
MAURA, Brunei (Nov. 9, 2012) Sailors, Marines and Royal Brunei Armed Forces personnel attend the closing ceremony of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Brunei 2012. The guided-missile frigate USS Reuben James (FFG 57) is moored in the background. CARAT is a series of bilateral military exercises between the U.S. Navy and the armed forces of Bangladesh, Brunei, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei and Timor Leste. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Cmdr. Clay Doss/ Released)
As for bugs. Usually the Co will seek out a sailor that has experience in pest control and assign him the task. This was the case on the America and Hancock.
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Things I remember about the '71-'72 MED cruise on the JFK....
I got there on March 24th 1972 the ship was in Rhodes Greece. A great port. I did miss port calls at Naples, Thessalonika & Corfu Greece..
We hit a lot of ports in the MED.
Rhodes, Athens (twice), Izmir, Genoa, Cannes, Malaga, Palma(4 times
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I remember the "gut"(bar/other district) in Palma was off limits but that never stopped me.
Barcelona had two guts..
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Athens had road-runners..
We got extended on our cruise about three times..First time the America was sent to Vietnam. Then the Saratoga was sent to Vietnam. Then there was a major fire on the Forrestal, what else, in port in Norfolk...Finally the Forrestal relieved us in September. Then they sent us on a short stint to the North Atlantic to be a part of Strong Express. We were supposed to stop in Scotland. There was a vote. The skipper said it was a tie and he cast the deciding vote and we headed back to Norfolk.
The ship was super clean. Cleanest I ever served on.
On the aft mess decks the JFK had ice cream parlor. the only one on any ship I servered aboard.
The mess decks were always open. In the lag time when aft was closed the foward mess deck was open and vice versa.
I remember the radio station DJ on night check kept playing Bob Dillion tunes. I could not stand that DJ. Can't stand Dillion. Sings like a cat is being strangled. One night a buch of mates went up to the movie studio and threatened the DJ over his love of Dillion. The Dillion music ceased.
The very first day the ship went to sea when I was on board an H-2 SeaSprite helo crashed and I saw that because I was on vultures row. They called man overboard and I did not know what to do. ..So I headed to my work center..Good move.
Movies were shown in the crews lounge almost nightly.
We had the only shop on the ship with red tile. Ordies ya' know!
Non-rates had to wear uniforms in Spanish ports the first day or two.
In Barcelona there was some big soccer game between Russia and Scotland..I never saw so many drunks in my life.
I took a bus from Malaga to Tormlinias and on the way back the bus nearly crashed..more than once. The bus driver was nutso.
We went to Cannes France and it rained every day.
Liberty was very liberal on the JFK. But many times when when you went on liberty you better have a fresh haircut.
On the JFK you could not wear jeans or t-shirts on liberty. Your shirt had to have a collar.
We had a lot of visitors in port. A lot.
The JFK was the only ship I was ever on that always had fresh milk. I think because we were frequently in port.
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The only time the B'sun whistle was blown is if the CO had something to say.
I flew off the ship the day before we got back to Norfolk to go on emergency leave.
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The ship finally got back to pier 12 at NOB in Norfolk on October the 6th 1972. I made 6 and a half months of a 10 month and one week MED cruise.
The cruise book sucked.Big time. I still have it in pristine condition. Not a single color picture and it's full of mistakes. I think a blind monkey with a pencil edited it..
Back in the day. On the JFK..the Big John!.
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